Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 June 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Decarbonisation of the Heat Sector: Discussion

Mr. Ronan Coffey:

I can add a Boston Scientific perspective. I described our renewable energy goals. We sat around figuring out how we were going to achieve those. We looked at all the available technologies and what was coming. We are aware, too, that half our kilowatt hours are natural gas and half are electricity. It is a big decision. Deciding how we are going to decarbonise that natural gas is an important strategy. It was clear to us that solutions such as hydrogen or renewable gas, while certainly attractive, would not be available to us on the scale that we needed them in the timeframe that we needed them, and certainly not at a cost which would make them in any way viable. For our industry and type of heat profile, electrification of heat was a clear winner.